I saw that movie, which is enough to make me never, ever want to read the book. I do intend to read Far From the Madding Crowd and some others though.

Mr. Bennet says at one point in the book something to the effect of "I have two, no, I should say three, very silly daughters". He considers Mary as silly, yes, but not as much so as her sisters. Of course the thing with Mary is that even her "silly" sisters and mother like to pick on her, but then, that is hardly approved of by the author, or by the heroines Elizabeth and Jane.

She's a female counterpart to Mr. Collins, really - on the few occasions that she gets the opportunity to proclaim her views, she does so nearly as pompously and overbearingly as he does. Of course Mr. Collins ends up in a far better place than she does, but then Austen's books just aren't fair when it comes to comparing men and women, seeing how the society they are set in wasn't. Reading books isn't her flaw; the religious obsession and pomposity are. If you want to read about what happens when Austen makes a similar character into her heroine and glorifies her, I suggest you read Mansfield Park. But somehow I rather doubt you'll like it more.

That's an odd way to read books... though very noble, to be sure.